Embedded systems are the key innovation driver to improve almost all mechatronic products with cheaper and even new functionalities. They support today’s information society as inter-system communication enabler. A major industrial challenge arises from the need to face cost efficient integration of different applications with different levels of safety and security on a single computing platform in an open context.

EMC² finds solutions for dynamic adaptability in open systems, provides handling of mixed criticality applications under real-time conditions, scalability and utmost flexibility, full scale deployment and management of integrated tool chains, through the entire lifecycle.

The objective of EMC² is to establish Multi-Core technology in all relevant Embedded Systems domains.

EMC² is a project of 101 partners of embedded industry and research from 16 European countries with an effort of about 770 person years and a total budget of about 94 million Euro.

Overview

EMC² is structured into 12 Work Packages, 6 Technology Work Packages and 6 Living Labs:

About EMC²

Embedded System Architectures

Executable Application Models and Design Tools

Dynamic Runtime Environments and Services

Multi-core hardware architectures and concepts

System Design Platform, Tools, Models and Interoperability

System qualification and certification

Automotive applications

Avionics

Space applications

Industrial manufacturing

Internet of things

Cross domain applications

About EMC²

Dynamic changes in an open system

variable number of control units

unknown applications possible

full range of dynamic changes possible

Challenges

A major industrial challenge arises from the need to face cost efficient integration of different applications with different levels of safety and security on a single computing platform in an open context. Multi-core and many-core computing platforms have to significantly improve system (and application) integration, efficiency and performance.

Embedded System Architectures

Focus of WP1 Embedded system architecture is an architecture enabling an open system of networked multi-core computation units. The open architecture is characterized by a set of (system) requirements, a set of constraints and a set of overall goals or objectives. On this architecture, classes of functional and non-functional services are to be run. This requires efforts in the fields of timing prediction, resource planning and assignment and adhering to existing standards.

Executable Application Models and Design Tools

In WP2 the application developer entry level for mixed critical applications will be defined. The result will be a design flow starting with application level models including functional and extra-functional specifications down to a fully deployed system model to be executed on an embedded multi-core platform.

Dynamic Runtime Environments and Services

The broad objective of the WP3 is to enhance the European knowledge in mechanisms and architectures for Run-time environments (RTE) that are able to support mixed-critical systems, security techniques, safety and real-time properties. Basis will be the existing RTEs as used in the EMC² Living Labs which are formal or de-facto standards in industry. Technologies include mechanisms such as virtualization, hypervision, monitoring, which need to be adapted to increasing application system dynamics with no loss in effectiveness and minimal loss in efficiency.

Multi-core hardware architectures and concepts

The overall objective of WP4 is developing and evaluating hardware techniques that enable multi-core processors to execute applications with mixed criticalities. The main problem is that the majority of modern architectures have chosen great increases in complexity to deliver relatively small performance improvements. The effect of this has been an increase in the complexity of the design, the verification, and the run-time behaviour to a level where a programmer cannot understand what impact code(s) has/have on run-time behaviour. Under this scenario, mixed criticality systems cannot confidently or efficiently be build, especially ones that are scalable and heavily interconnected.

System Design Platform, Tools, Models and Interoperability

The overall objective of work package 5 is to implement commercially applicable solutions based on the iFEST integration framework and further to extend the associated technologies to demonstrate economic benefits for embedded system development. The evolution changes for embedded systems are manifold, and can be considered as a multi-dimensional process. Design evolution, architecture evolution and code/models evolution are running in parallel.

System qualification and certification

EMC² systems will support a wide range of new applications. They will support openness in the sense that they will dynamically interconnect with other systems and that it will be possible to dynamically modify their software as it is known from ‘Apps’ on mobile phones. Moreover, they will support dynamic adaptation to changing runtime contexts. This includes the external context in the systems’ environment ranging, for example, from available IT infrastructure services to weather conditions. Furthermore it requires the internal context, which is defined, e.g., the availability and quality of available platform resources.

Automotive applications

EMC² Living Lab WP7 on Automotive Applications is driven by the overarching business need to assure high product quality for automotive embedded systems facing an exponential growth in embedded systems complexity, while at the same time meeting tight cost constraints and facing the need to further reduce time-to-market. Taking into account the critical role of embedded electronic vehicular architecture, EMC² Living Lab WP7 Automotive Applications work package focuses on advancing the state of the art for automotive embedded systems to address this overarching business needs.

Space applications

Design of data handling systems and data processing systems for space applications is currently introducing technologies quite new to the space market as multi-core processors, hierarchy of cache memories or SoC. In the space business, the SoC are newcomers that are entering the market at an extremely slow speed, especially when compared with the promised advantages that such systems may bring in terms of performances improvement. The main reason for this small adoption ratio is the criticality of the space borne systems and the associated validation and certification procedures. There is a lack of methodologies and tools to support the exploitation of these new technologies in the scope of systems which are compliant to the strict non-functional requirements of criticality, safety, timeliness, security and reliability peculiar to the space applications.

Industrial manufacturing

In the industrial application domain many devices communicate with each other to achieve an effective control of industrial processes. Embedded devices cooperated with many IT systems to make the industrial processes more efficient, to reduce waste or raw materials, and to save the environment. Most industrial processes place strict requirements on the automation systems. Electric motors and frequency converters that operate these motors are the backbone of an industrial automation system and provide automated solutions in various industrial domains.

Internet of things

Internet of Things is a new concept that defines a scenario where everyday physical objects will be connected to the Internet, will interoperation with other objects and systems; and will be able to identify themselves to other devices. This will increase dramatically the number of connect items to the networks that could be transformative of daily life. This living lab will focus in different scenarios that will be addressed in a short future and where the focus of this project will help to develop new functionalities.

Cross domain applications

This living lab contains use cases from different domains. It will demonstrate the use of results from WP1 - WP5. The main objective of living lab WP12 is to demonstrate that multi-cores can be used to achieve significant advances beyond the state of the art. It will prepare the ground for future applications of mixed-criticality multi-core systems. WP 12 will tailor the generic cross-domain architecture of WP1 to the needs of this living lab’s application domains by software. The WP12 use cases mostly address mixed-criticality multi-core challenges that can be solved in a cost-efficient way by a combination of software and commercially available hardware like FPGAs.